Investigating the Four Dimensions of Power in Mega Mall Development Case Study: District 1 of Tehran Metropolis

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Ph.D. Candidate in Urban Planning, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

2 Associate Professor, Department of urban management, Faculty of Management and Accounting, Allameh Tabatabai University, Tehran, Iran

3 Professor, Department of Urban and Regional Design and Planning, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

In the last few decades, urban scholars have recognized the importance of power as a key concept in urban planning. Planning is subject to exercise of power, meaning it cannot do everything and in most cases is far away from its normative goals and planner positive intentions. The exercise of power can take place in every stage of planning, from proposing a plan to approval and implementation of it. If planners take into account the power operation, instead of ignoring it, they can improve their analyses and empower their discipline. Therefore, planners have been recommended to pay attention to power. Beside the outstanding research in this field, planning still lacks a coherent body of power-related theories and research. One of the reasons for this shortcoming is the absence of comprehensive attention to various dimensions of power. The interdisciplinary nature of planning has caused it to use other sciences and disciplines to develop itself. The power concept roots in political science, hence studying political science can help planners to better understand the nature of power and its operation. Among political scholars, there is not a consensus on the nature of power. Some of the scholars such as Arendt. and Parsons have focused on the positive side of power and most of them have revealed the negative and dominant side of it. The last group has introduced four dimensions of dominant power including overt, covert, latent and disciplinary power. The present critical research, by applying fourth dimensions of power, aimed to reveal all the visible to less visible dimensions of power in planning. The case of this research is the development of mega malls in district 1 of Tehran metropolis, sometimes contrary to the approved plan, which were emerged and boomed in the last two decades. Mega malls are mega projects with mixed retail and recreational use. The problem is how these mega projects, which create many challenges for the city and citizens, are still booming. Examining this problem using the fourth dimensional power exposes all dimensions of power exercise in mega mall development. This research is qualitative in nature and has used the grounded theory method. This method has three traditions including classic, interpretation and constructivist. According to the constructivist tradition, which was developed by Kathy Charmaz, researcher views and studies can reflect in the research and the theory constructed through researcher interaction with the interviewers and the collected data. The main data for this research were gathered from 18 semi-structured qualitative interviews with citizens, urban managers, mega mall developers and urban experts, three documents related to mega malls, 23 articles and 35 interviews documented on websites. The data was analyzed through initial and focused coding, it was then categorized and themes were proposed according to power dimensions. The result is that the process of mega-mall development is in line with the interests of power, monopoly, rationalization and legitimization, and the product of this is an environment that is similar to panopticon.

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References

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Journal of Architecture and Urban Planning
Volume 16, Issue 41
December 2023
Pages 5-21

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